(1) Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display which is widely used, and includes two sheets of display panels in which field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode and a common electrode are formed, and a liquid crystal layer is interposed therebetween. The liquid crystal display displays an image by applying a voltage to the field generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the liquid crystal layer, determining an orientation of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer based on the generated electric field, and controlling polarization of incident light.
Among the liquid crystal displays, a liquid crystal display in a vertically aligned mode, in which major axes of the liquid crystal molecules are aligned to be perpendicular to the upper and lower display panels when an electric field is not applied to the liquid crystal layer, has a high contrast ratio and a wide reference viewing angle.
In order to implement a wide viewing angle in the liquid crystal display when in the vertically aligned mode, a plurality of domains having different alignment directions of the liquid crystals may be formed in one pixel. As a method of forming the plurality of domains, a method of forming cutouts, such as fine slits, in a field generation electrode, a method of forming protrusions on the field generating electrode, etc., are used. These methods may form the plurality of domains by aligning the liquid crystal in a direction perpendicular to a fringe field by a fringe field formed between an edge of the cutout or the protrusion and the field generating electrode facing the edge.
The liquid crystal display in the vertically aligned mode may have degraded side visibility compared to front visibility. Methods of dividing the one pixel into two subpixels and making voltages of the two subpixels different have therefore been proposed.
Meanwhile, in order to increase response speed of the liquid crystal while implementing the wide viewing angle, a method of allowing a liquid crystal to have a pretilt in a state in which the electric field is not applied has been developed.